A pony's escape

	Despite her prison being completely void of light, Hazel found herself able to navigate as though an angel was gently pulling at her collar. Behind her down the hallway and tucked in a bedroom suite was her sister as well as her soon to be former master. It had been a long and painful road earning that smug asshole’s trust. She had played her part convincingly, a doe eyed idiot of a pet. Eager to please and obedient to a fault. But soon the mask of Hazel would fall, and despite being unable to recall her previous name, she knew she would find a way to make herself whole again and be free. Only a few minutes of careful hoofsteps and silent breath were standing between Hazel and freedom.
Once her act had settled Master’s nerve, he had grown careless. He was so confident in the loyalty of his pets that he had begun to leave windows cracked open just a bit to cool off the apartment at night. She had tested these small cracks in her prison, each one no more than an inch too big to fit her body through. Ever careful to avoid waking her master, her patience had finally paid off. Before bed she had caught a glimpse of him leaving the living room window open just a tiny bit more than usual. Before she even reached it she knew it was wide enough.
She came towards the kitchen now, only twenty or so feet away from her freedom. She had been so generously provided with cute little socks when she had asked her master for them last month. That dope didn’t even hesitate. And so she had to bite down on her tongue to stop from laughing as she silently crossed the linoleum floor thanks to the gifts provided to her by the very person she was escaping from.
Without much fanfare she reached the living room, and with a little jump she landed herself on the couch. The window gap was so fucking fat she could fit through it in her sleep. With a little running start she threw herself to the window, and with a nerve wracking clatter, pushed herself through the window’s opening. As she dropped onto their apartment’s second story balcony, she was already spying around for a bush to land on. It took a moment for her to realize she was still holding her breath in anticipation of her escape, and with a few silly feeling gasps of air she cleared up the light headedness which was creeping up on her. Her big and expressive eyes were somehow absolutely terrible at seeing in low light conditions. She had navigated the apartment mostly from memory, but now suddenly felt as though she was floating in a dark sea of nothingness. The outside was so much more vast than Hazel remembered. She found herself unable to actually process her surroundings, and a few pains of fear welled up in her throat.
She swallowed any apprehension she had only a moment later and was preparing to make the jump into the foliage a few meters away when suddenly she heard a familiar voice whisper through the air.
“Hazel?”
She turned herself around in an instant, staring in fear and terror at the figure peering at her from the windowsill. From the shadows she could make out the slightly fluffy and meticulously clean plumage of her fellow inmate, or as her master insisted, her sister Flotsam. She was speaking in a trembling voice, as quiet as a shrew.
Hazel quickly took stock of the situation, resisting the urge to just bolt off the balcony. If Flotsam had noticed Hazel sneaking out, and She had told master, then there was no way that master wouldn’t have ran out and just simply grabbed her and dragged her inside. Just the fact Flotsam was talking to her in a whisper made it obvious that she wasn’t trying to wake their Master.
Hazel glanced back into the pitch black abyss beneath her before turning to Flotsam and giving a laborious sign. Her fellow pet may have once held the dignity of a human, but over the years had been worn down into a mewling obedient and thoughtless toy for their master. She didn’t know how long Flotsam had been in the “care” of their master, but she was already this way when she had first woken up in that prison. If nothing else, pity took hold of Hazel, and she mentally decided she at least owed Flotsam a goodbye.
“Flotsam, I am going to go and try to regain my humanity. I never wanted to be a pet, and I was taken against my will. If you like you can come with me, but if you don’t I won’t think any less of you.”
Flotsam wobbled on her perch, and Hazel could hear her voice catching in her throat.
“Hazel sister, w-why are you doing this?”
Her fellow pet’s simple and bubbly voice conveyed her inability to comprehend her situation perfectly. Hazel grimaced a little, as she thought of how she might have ended up similar to this pathetic creature if she had been kept in captivity any longer.
“I want to be human, I want to be free. I am going to be happy and a person again Flotsam. I don’t want to be a pet.”
Flotsam’s breath quivered as she heard her sister speak. “D-do you hate me? Was I a bad sister? I’m sorry Hazel I’ll be better I promise. I can be better please don’t leave.”  She jumped down with a small flutter of her wings, and landed next to Hazel. She hugged her sister, wrapping her hooves and wings around Hazel as she began to cry. Hazel closed her eyes and took a moment to take in the warmth and affection from her sister. She was going to miss Flotsam. She couldn’t remember much of what her life was like before she was taken away and transformed into a pony, but what little she had retained seemed to her to be exceedingly lonely. Maybe once she had transformed back into a human, she could get the police to raid Master’s apartment and free Flotsam as well.
She found herself dismissing that idea as soon as it arrived. Flotsam was probably so far gone, she would be unable to ever rid herself of pethood. Removing her from master would only serve to hurt her.
Hazel pushed Flotsam back just a bit and looked into her eyes. She wondered what kind of person her sister had been. She could barely remember her old life, did Flotsam even know she had ever been human?
“I’m gunna miss you sis,” Hazel said affectionately, caving to the sorority angle her master pushed on them.
“But I need to get back to my life. I was a human. Pethood could never replace a real fulfilling existence.”
Flotsam blinked her eyes rapidly for a moment, before pulling Hazel back into a hug. As she nuzzled her cheek against Hazel’s she began to whisper into her ear.
“Do you remember what it was like before you were my sister?”
Her tone caught Hazel off guard.
She sputtered and failed to connect a train of thought together for a moment before collecting herself and saying confidently,
“I was free, and a human. I was in school I think and I bet I had a future. A bright future. I was going to be successful and good and happy. I was good and human, and all that was stolen from me by Master.”
Flotsam kissed her sister’s cheek before pulling back and laying herself down on the balcony in front of Hazel.
“What was your name?” She probed with uncharacteristic tact.
After a loaded silence Hazel meekly answered,
“I don’t remember, but that doesn't matter.”
“What was your major in school?”
Hazel swallowed, and found herself staring at a Flotsam she didn’t recognize.
“I don’t remember.”
“What school did you attend.”
“I don’t remember.”
“Why do you think you attended school if you can’t remember what you studied and where you studied at?”
Hazel felt her insides begin to turn.
“I don’t know... I think I was around the age where it would make sense?“
Flotsam narrowed her eyes.
“How old were you?”
“I don’t remember. Probably around nineteen to like late twenties?”
The two ponies sat still for a few moments before Flotsam broke the silence. She ruffled her wings and began to casual preen as she spoke out of the corner of her mouth.
“So you don’t know anything do you? You just woke up in the pet carrier with a vague sense that you used to be.. Something else.”
She waved her hoof around in the air as she spoke, before pointing it at Hazel.
“Do you know what the transformation does? Did you ever ask Master or that nice man who sold us to him what was actually happening inside you? Or did you just present a faux ignorance from day one in some hope to escape.”
Hazel couldn’t help but shrink back from her sister.
“W-what does the transformation do then…um, mentally speaking.”
Flotsam looked down at her hooves. She spoke without a breath of air, her words floating out of her mouth in almost complete silence.
“I can remember all of what I was before the transformation, Hazel. I was a runaway, dropout, prostitute, suicidal tranny wretch. I choked down the cum of strangers to afford a fucking roof over my head. My body was scarred and thin and on the edge of breaking.”
The pegasus gestured with her wing out over the balcony before continuing.
“So many people consume you and spit you out. Until you can’t piece together whose trash you are. You are reduced to debris floating in the gutter. Gutter flotsam.”
Hazel squirmed a bit in her seat before responding.
“I get it, you had a shit life as a human. But that doesn't mean I did. It's still no reason for me to stay a pet. What the hell did the transformation do to our heads?”
Flotsam’s gaze shot through Hazel.
“Nothing. Unless you asked it to.”
“What?”
Flotsam scooted next to hazel, and covered her barrel with an outstretched wing. The cool night breeze was replaced with a familiar warmth.
“The man who did this stopped taking people without warning years ago. I remember the day i was contacted, and given the opportunity to be free from that hell. To have comfort and love and protection until the day I die. And I remember being asked if I would like to, as they said, Start fresh. I refused, but two of the ponies in my batch accepted. They awoke to new lives in new bodies, as they had requested.”
Flotsam made sure to look Hazel straight in the eye.
“Who ever you were Hazel, you decided to forget.  Whatever it was that you had before, you decided it was too painful, or too troublesome to keep. You are the one who choose this life. I won’t stop you from leaving, but you need to be aware that whatever is waiting for you, you already lost to it once.”
“I have to try…”
Flotsam sighed.
“I know. And you made me break character and everything. I really do like playing the dull minded pet. Some smart ass once said, He who makes a beast of himself, gets rid of the pain of being human.”
Flotsam gave Hazel’s neck a lick before passing a final kiss to her sister.
“Good luck ok. If it gets too much to handle, I am sure Master would welcome you back with open arms. Goodbye for now sis.”
Hazel, still dressed up in her socks and pajamas, nodded.
With as much a running start as she could manage on their balcony, Hazel launched herself off and into the bushes. She landed with the crunch of sticks and foliage breaking, but she seemed to be mostly unharmed.
Flotsam turned away as her sister disappeared into the night. As She climbed back through the open window, the sound of little hooves echoing in the apartment complex’s parking lot grew fainter and fainter. She really did hope Hazel managed to be happy and complete and all that. She quietly returned to her master’s bedroom, and gracefully jumped back up onto his bed. Right now she would need to focus on comforting her master. He was a mawkish guy and would probably be really hurt by Hazel’s escape.
She squirmed back into her master’s grasp.
His sweet caramel voice greeted her ears.
“Did she seem happy to leave?”
Flotsam gave her master a kiss on his cheek.
“She seemed pretty conflicted. I really wish she had given it a second chance.”
Flotsam felt her master press her against his chest, holding her tightly.
“When the Doctor told me her history, I was really hoping i could give her a place of healing and rest. She never did drop her guard around me.”
“It was probably my fault, I was a bad petmate.”
Master have her a little squeeze of her tummy before saying assertively,
“You are a good little pony, and you were a great sister. Hazel just needed something we don’t have. I hope she finds whatever it is before she gets hurt again.”
Flotsam gripped onto her master’s torso with her front and back hooves.
She felt a few genuine tears begin to well up in her eyes.
“I miss Hazel already.”
As her master sighed, she could hear the tears breaking up his voice.
“Me too.”